How humans fit the characteristics of a malignant tumor on earth
Some of our brightest minds are working to fulfill a dream to colonize space. First step is Mars, then further into solar system, and then the universe is the limit.
Pretty soon we would have more than a trillion humans. We would have a thousand Mozarts, a hundred Einsteins and a million Taylor Swifts.
We could gaze in our glory and watch TikToks about our progress.
Space missions, relatives on distant planets, vacations in space… You have never been to Paris? There would be people that have never been to Earth.
As interesting as that sounds I am a bit worried where that leaves the bulk of the population. By that same logic we would also have billions of people that are struggling, just as most of us are now.
I understand the temptation. By nature we are wired to reproduce, we are wired to find security, and our rationality helps us achieve our base desires. For an ambitious mind advancing civilization might seem like the ultimate goal. And on the surface there is nothing wrong with it, so far it has worked well for human evolution.
Almost all generations have experienced wars, diseases and economic depressions however the general trend throughout centuries has been positive.
Close your eyes, turn the wheel and hope you are born in a decent place. The later you were born, the better your chances were.
Compared to your ancestors it was more likely you would survive birth and childhood. As a kid you were more likely to go to school and get an education. You had more and more access to information, a better understanding about our world. You were more likely to be accepted for who you are.
It is not all great, there are still serious problems with all of the above, especially in less advanced areas of the world. But in most aspects the overall growth of the civilization has been remarkable.
We have learned to secure our homes and fight diseases. We have learned to live longer and to simplify our survival. We have learned to organize and build.
But we are still outliers in an otherwise self-sufficient environment. With all our knowledge we have not learned to be sustainable.
Homo sapiens, sapiens. — wise, wise man.
Our ability to think has given us an advantage over other species on earth. We have taken control over earths resources, it’s inhabitants and essentially it’s future.
We have found a way to step out of the natural food chain and life cycle. We no longer have to fear other animals, or worry about food, or most of the diseases. Survival has a different meaning in the modern civilization.
All of this sums up to the fact that nature can no longer control our population growth. Pandemics and natural disasters are a drop in the bucket compared to the growth happening every day.
Considering the beginning of time we have not existed for long. In this short period we have already made a big impact on our planet. We have spread almost everywhere on the planet; eventually inhabiting all of the continents and most of the places where living conditions were good. And this process has never stopped. In fact, the pace only keeps increasing.
Just take a look at how human population has grown over the last 300 years:
Earth still has some inhabitable land left but not all of it is well designed for living. We keep grouping in large cities because it is convenient. Unfortunately, cities are some of the biggest contributors to environmental problems, pollution and climate change. As the population continues to grow the cities keep expanding and taking over the nearby environments.
While we are busy building the biggest plastic garbage tower the earth is starting to lose it’s biodiversity. In other words everything is becoming more similar.
Jellyfish are taking over the oceans, coral reefs are dying, and the melting ice are reducing the population of Antartic krill. These are some of the foundations of our biodiversity which will have long lasting effects on virtually all species up the food chain.
There are skeptics who say that environment is changing on its own, the change is natural. It is possible there is some truth to it but scientific evidence shows that humans are eager to speed up the change.
Since becoming the dominant force of our planet, our evolution has been a process of uncontrolled growth, of invasion and destruction of nearby ecosystems, of spreading to far reaching places, and contributing to loss of biodiversity. In other words humans grow, multiply and spread to other parts of our ecosystem, affecting everything in our path.
These 4 characteristics are shared by another process very familiar to us. Malignant tumors are defined by rapid and uncontrolled growth, invasion of nearby tissues (taking over the ecosystem), ability to spread (colonization) and dedifferentiation (loss of biodiversity).
And just as with cancer our chance of survival depends on the stage we are in. It is important to detect it as early as possible. The time to do that is now.
Amusingly, the difference between us and cancer is the same thing that makes us different from other species. It is our ability to think.
Theoretically, we could realize that destroying the organism that we use for our survival is not wise. We could try to be cautious and put our most precious ally in the highest priority.
Unfortunately to do that we would have to go against our base instincts. We would need to stop invading other ecosystems. We would need to be careful about our own growth, about our dominating tendencies. It would also require the ignorant, uneducated, money chasing part of the population to participate. I don’t think that is happening any time soon.
We were quick to declare the earth as ours however we are still failing to accept the responsibility that comes with it. There are still debates going on if climate change is real. I am not surprised. There are still debates if earth is flat, or which is the right religion. The wise wise man is still stuck in it’s evolution.
The earth won’t go extinct; it can’t die, but we can alter it to the point that we can no longer survive in it.
